Effect of Mutual Interaction between High and Low Stereo-Regularity Components on Structure Formation in Melt Spinning Process of Isotactic Polypropylene Blend Fibers

Abstract

Fiber formation behavior of the blend fibers consisting of two types of isotactic polypropylene (iPP), i. e. high stereo-regularity/high molecular weight iPP (HPP) and low stereo-regularity/low molecular weight iPP (LPP), was investigated. In the melt spinning of blend fibers of various HPP:LPP compositions, the spinnability was improved significantly not only by blending LPP into HPP but also by blending HPP into LPP. On-line diameter measurement of the spin-line revealed that the increase of LPP composition caused the shift of solidification point to downstream, indicating that the crystallization temperature was lowered. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analysis of the as-spun fibers clarified that only the α-form crystal was formed, and the crystalline orientation increased with the increases of take-up velocity and HPP weight fraction. The crystallinities obtained from the WAXD patterns of the as-spun fibers of various HPP/LPP compositions prepared at the take-up velocity of 1 and 5 km/min were lower than the values estimated based on the rule of additivity, where the difference was more prominent for the 1 km/min fibers. Analyses of crystallinity through differential scanning calorimetry measurements also suggested the suppression of the crystallization of HPP in the HPP/LPP blend fibers. The thermal analyses basically clarified that in the melt spinning process of the blends of HPP and LPP, both components crystallized independently even though the two polymers are considered to be miscible in the molten state, however, detailed analyses of melting behavior of the as-spun fibers suggested the possibility of the formation of crystals with a certain level of mixing of the HPP and LPP molecules, i. e. the mixing of a certain amount of LPP molecules into the HPP crystals and also the mixing of a certain amount of HPP molecules into the LPP crystals.